Kathryn A. Flynn - The Sexual Abuse of Women by Members of the Clergy

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

To the many women whose lives are
catalysts for change,
and to Maura, Michael, and Kate,
whose courage and loving presence abide

No endeavor is developed or carried out in a vacuum, is unconnected, or is accomplished without the help and support of many others. This study is no exception. I want to extend deep gratitude and immense appreciation to all those individuals who have contributed significantly to this works completion.

I appreciate the efforts of Cathy Anderson, a Sacramento practitioner and researcher, who helped locate women to interview. Jan Tuin, author and Executive Director of Tamars Voice, and her husband, Lon Tuin, contacted many women and made necessary introductions and continue to bring much understanding and hope to abused women. Dee Miller, psychiatric nurse, advocacy writer, activist, and author extended her hospitality, contacted women for interviews, coordinated interview schedules, and arranged for our use of a local church in Iowa. She is loved and trusted by many victims and continues to work tirelessly in their behalf. Ken Johnson, educator, author, and internationally-known trauma expert, provided his expertise, suggestions, and recommendations to enhance development of a research proposal. Neva Root lent extensive knowledge of narrative research methodology, assisting in the development of a simpler interview to ultimately provide more depth and complexity. Billie Wiebies belief in the necessity to engaging in exploration related to passionate interests influenced topic selection. Lola Coxford Brown, whose energy is a deep well, shared reports of germinal progress. Her enthusiasm and drive remain contagious. Gabriele Mayer brought inspiration, great joy and sensitivity through her enormous courage to engage in inquiry on unpopular, sensitive topics. As a German citizen promoting Holocaust awareness, she remains a graceful role model. Conversations with Gabriele and Siroj Sorajjakool were encouraging. Ava Caposselas keen wit and wonderful creativity increased my confidence and encouraged exploration of publishing processes. Carole Weeks endless sense of humor made hard work seem like fun. During a scary moment when an engine failed on a flight to a conference, Carole insisted we would be fine because our work was not yet done. Her strong belief in the necessity of our efforts increased a sense of responsibility for completion of the project. Charlene Moskovitz witnessed and abided.

Professor Kathleen Greider of the Claremont School of Theology introduced a perspective of trauma and laid content foundation for creation of the topic. Professor Jack Schuster shared his time, faith, encouragement, and networking ideas. Professor Phil Dreyer promoted awareness of human developmental processes, and shared his friendship. Professor John Regan offered honesty, insight and clear articulation of constructive measures that might open the work to larger audiences. He encouraged connection. Professor Daryl Smith expanded interest, guided and remained available at every juncture. She inspired and nurtured freedom in inquiry and courage.

Many friends and neighbors also helped along the way. Special thanks go to the neighbor lad, Jeff Hayward, for his interest and sunny disposition. Osborne Reagers presence endured quietly in the background through his music and spirit. Erika Moore and Bill and Julie Lewis remain ever-faithful friends. John and Pam Payne, Bob ONeill, and David and Elizabeth Froman offered encouragement. I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mary Flynn, who took time from her own work to help. I felt her love and support as we traveled long distances through several midwestern states to meet with participants. I am not unmindful of the enormous contributions of the women who volunteered to participate, but were not interviewed because of constraints imposed by time and other resources. Their spirits and willingness remained invisible presences which upheld exploration and writing. Heartfelt gratitude is especially expressed to the brave and courageous women who participated in interviews. These strong and compassionate individuals were willing to make leaps of faith to trust a stranger with intimate details of their lives in hope that what they had to say might make a difference for others lives. Through our conversations, and as I reviewed their narratives, in countless ways I was inspired and motivated by their courage and determination.

And finally, I am humbly indebted with a deep and abiding love for my husband and children without whom this work would not exist. In addition to countless hours of care for our children passing through significant parts of their childhoods, my husband, Maurice Carter, patiently and meticulously spent untold days proofreading various manuscripts, offering editorial advice and expressing his belief in and hope for these efforts. Our daughter Maura shouldered responsibility beyond her years and remained kind and caring throughout. In her quiet but gentle fashion, she offered good-wishes continuously, rejoiced with progress and did thoughtful things to make life easier for all of us. Maura added color to our lives. Michael, our son, participated in a journey to collect data, restored numerous computer failures and retrieved otherwise lost information, talked to me often about my work and remained enthusiastic about its significance, even with his youthful understanding. Kaitlyn wrote notes regularly expressing a childs love and faith, offered promised rewards for finished labor, kept track of her mothers time in the library, and shared an irretrievable part of her childhood with this work.

But most of all my husband and children moved mountains, walked on water, and planted and nurtured, deep within my heart, a tiny mustard seed.

The early morning has been a customary time for daily reflection and meditation as I have, for the last several years, walked past a church situated on a corner in the neighborhood near my home. As the bell tower stands silhouetted against the first morning light, I am often caught by the peacefulness of an idyllic scene embedded in the quiet presentation of a new day. A message of hope and new life is inevitably conveyed by an image of a picturesque church with lovely grounds and majestic bells displayed against an awakening sky. However, as I approach the parking lot exit, my serenity is always shattered by the presence of a small sign positioned for visibility to those leaving the church grounds. The sign reads: You are now entering the mission field. As time goes by I am increasingly convinced that the sign needs to be turned around to be read, instead, by those entering the church. It seems more appropriate that a message to members, visitors, and others who are about to enter the church premises, with all that their arrival symbolizes, might be reformulated to also include an understanding that upon entering a church, they are, in all earnestness, also entering a mission field.

It is a twist in course that work to be done is primarily inside churches and not only somewhere out there. Peter Rutter identified sexual exploitation by professionals as a problem that simultaneously exists nowhere and everywhere, a problem to be found practically nowhere in books and in professional literature, and yet everywhere because everyone knows someone who has experienced sexual exploitation by a professional. I didnt realize how true Rutters characterization of fiduciary sex abuse was to the reality of sexual abuse by clergy until I began this research and started talking to people about it. Inevitably, almost every person with whom I communicated knew someone who had been sexually harmed by a clergyman. Although this information should no longer be surprising, these random conversations indicate a possibility that sex abuse by religious professionals may be even more pervasive than current projections, which are already high. It is curious, however, that even though people know someone who knows someone who knows someone actual knowledge about the immediate and enduring effects on victims of sex abuse by clergy is not widespread.